While there is deservedly great praise being heaped on the Philadelphia Flyers for rallying from three games down, this historic comeback wasn't really that shocking.
That's not to say I knew it would happen, because when the Bruins jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the series, based on historical results, it looked like the series was over, for all intents and purposes.
However, in Game Three, the Bruins lost David Krejci (who had three points in three games to that point) to a dislocated wrist and the Bruins weren't quite the same without him.
It's not like the Bruins, the league's lowest-scoring team this season, could afford to lose any scoring talent whatsoever, and they had already lost Marco Sturm in Game One of the series and while Sturm only scored 22 goals during the regular season, that modest total made him Boston's top marksman.
Thus, the Bruins were left to try and pull off a clinching win with an offence that was seriously short on power and led by 42-year-old Mark Recchi and 35-year-old mid-season signing Miroslav Satan.
Even so, the Bruins went to overtime in Game Four (thanks to a last minute goal by Recchi) before Simon Gagne, who had just returned to the Flyers lineup, scored the winner and set the Flyers' comeback in motion.
Over the next two games, the Bruins scored a total of one goal, and that was Milan Lucic's goal in the final minute of Game Six with Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask pulled for an extra attacker.
After Game Five, I was talking with Matthew Ross on the Team 990 in Montreal, discussing the possibility of a Flyers upset and I was surprised at how easy it was to talk myself into the Flyers making a comeback that hadn't happened for 35 years, but it kept gnawing at me that the Bruins' leading playoff goal-scorers, Recchi and Satan, aren't exactly at the stage of their careers that they should be leading a team in the postseason.
Under normal circumstances, perhaps Marc Savard would be the Bruins' offensive leader, but Savard has had a tough year, battling injuries and not performing all that well even when he was healthy.
Coming back from a concussion, Savard scored the winner in overtime in Game One of the series, but was limited to just two assists in the next six games. Decidedly un-Savard-like production.
Patrice Bergeron, who had six points in the first four games against Philadelphia, came up empty in the last three games of the series and without any sustainable offence, the Bruins were ripe for the picking.
Cue the Flyers, who started the series shorthanded -- notably minus Gagne and Jeff Carter -- but got Gagne back for Game Four and the Flyers really had more firepower.
Danny Briere and Mike Richards led the way, with ten and nine points in the series, respectively. Chris Pronger, who played a mere 31:42 in Game Seven, had six points in the series. Even Ville Leino, an afterthought if not for the injuries, put up seven points against Boston.
In addition to all that, the Flyers might have gotten lucky with the timing of goaltender Brian Boucher's knee injuries. After performing so well in the the first round win over New Jersey, Boucher was struggling against Boston, posting an .884 save percentage through the first four games and the Flyers were just barely alive in the series.
Boucher had stopped all nine shots he faced in Game Five, before suffering MCL injuries in both knees, which meant that the Flyers had to turn to Michael Leighton, who was supposed to lead them down the stretch anyway, but Leighton suffered a high ankle sprain in mid-March and hadn't been heard from since.
Leighton stepped in and stopped 44 of 45 Bruins shots in Games Five and Six to force Game Seven, then got lit up early, allowing three goals on 14 shots in the first period of the decisive game.
Fortunately, the Flyers controlled the majority (not all) of play after that, outshooting Boston 19-11 over the final two periods and the Bruins couldn't get one past Leighton and, really, they didn't threaten much following Gagne's eventual game-winnier, scored on the power play with under eight minutes remaining in the third period.
Philadelphia moves on to the Eastern Conference Final, where they will face Montreal, in a shocking meeting of No. 7 and No. 8 seeds and an interesting contrast in styles, with Montreal smaller and more speed-oriented, while the Flyers still have the size and the edge in physical play.
Make no mistake, however, neither team is even a shell of the classic style contrasts of the Flyers and Habs in the mid-1970s. These are two teams that are very fortunate to still be playing and one will have a chance to play for the Stanley Cup.
Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@ctv.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen